From Mohammed to Ayn Rand

by Bosch Fawstin

15 Apr, 2009

Whether it’s a religion or a political movement,
the most effective critics are always those who were once believers.
Whether it’s David Horowitz dissecting the American Left, Bart
Ehrman challenging fundamentalist Christianity, or Ayaan Hirsi Ali
critiquing Islam, those that have been on the inside can cut the
deepest.

Not all critics write academic tomes. Ex-Muslim
cum Objectivist Bosch Fawstin's new book will contain several essays
explaining his challenging, often controversial views on Islam and
the War on Terror. But as a cartoonist, Fawstin is the ideal person
to make the definitive anti-Jihad superhero: Pigman. For the past
several years, cartoonist he has been posting images of the
characters from his upcoming graphic novel The Infidel on his
blog. As
the time grew near to begin releasing The Infidel in serial form
Bosch realized he had created enough images to warrant a separate
book.
ProPiganda: Drawing the Line Against Jihad is a collection
of the images that have appeared on his blog.

I recently got the opportunity to ask Fawstin some questions
about ProPiganda and The Infidel.

DS: Where did ProPiganda, your upcoming graphic
novel The Infidel, and Pigman come from? What life
experiences led you to develop the ideas you express in
ProPiganda and to create this character and this art?

BF: The Infidel came from my desire to respond to 9/11
through my art. While I'm not a soldier, I want retribution against
those who had a good day on 9/11. My Muslim background played a part
in my desire to take on this subject, and having left Islam years
before 9/11 helped me fully absorb the truth about it with no
problem. I had initially planned to write and draw a Captain America
story, but I realized that there would be no way in hell that Marvel
Comics would allow me to say what I had to say about Islam, nor
would they allow me to have Cap do what needed to be done to this
enemy. I then stepped back and started thinking about what would be
the perfect hero to fight against Jihad. Enter Pigman. The Infidel's
hero is Killian Duke, who leaves Islam after 9/11 and creates Pigman,
the jihadist's worst nightmare. Pigman is an ex-Muslim who fights
jihad, wearing pigskin leather to exploit the enemy's pigotry.
Salaam Duka, Killian's twin brother, on the other hand, falls back
into Islam in response to the atrocity, breaking their bond for
good. I've spent over three years developing this story while
researching all things Islam, and my blog has been a way to get
myself out there while I work on The Infidel. After realizing that I
had over a hundred pieces of art, along with a few essays, I decided
to collect it all in a 'remastered' collection I call ProPiganda:
Drawing the Line Against Jihad.

DS: As an ex-Muslim creating a graphic novel about an
ex-Muslim who creates an anti-Jihad superhero is there an
autobiographical element to The Infidel? Are characters inspired by
you and people you know?

BF: Yes, clearly there is that, and what came to me during
the writing of the story was that, in a sense, I've split myself in
two with the twins, with Killian representing my best, and Salaam my
worst. It's more complex than that, but their responses to the
attacks tell you who they are more than anything else. Pigman is
also a big part of me, the part that wants to see the enemy get
what's coming to them. Initially, the Pigman character was mainly a
trigger that sets off the brother's conflict, since I was more
interested in showing what kind of man would create such a character
as Pigman in this PC world we're living in. But Pigman has become
such a big part of the book that his own story echoes Killian's,
though on a far larger scale as he battles his archenemy, SuperJihad.

DS: What prompted you to abandon Islam? Could you discuss
the circumstances behind that decision?

BF: I didn't so much abandon Islam as fade away from it,
and I didn't have much faith to lose to begin with. It's tough to
say you've left something if you've never really embraced it. Hugh
Fitzgerald is right in saying "the atmospherics of Islam" can affect
even the least devout Muslim in a detrimental way. A strong thrust
within Islam is to see any and all things outside of Islam as
worthless, most particularly non-Muslims. When we did go to mosque
there was never any real sense that something important was taking
place. The majority of us who were involved in this pretense had no
idea what to do, unless we followed the imam's prayer moves (and
many in attendance were fooling around anyway). "Islam" was the name
of the thing that was held as 'the good' in my household, and it was
that vagueness which helped keep it at bay. It was only when I
started taking morality seriously that I realized Islam had nothing
to offer me.

DS: You say that Islam had nothing to offer you. What did
you find that did? What are the schools of thought and who are the
thinkers who have most influenced you and your work?

BF: I found Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, first by
watching the film version of The Fountainhead, and then by reading
her novels and nonfiction works. I felt at home reading her work. It
was the first time in my life that I saw the concept of morality
being taken seriously outside of religion. A morality that was based
in reality and had more to say about life on earth, freedom and the
individual than anything I had read before. It was only fitting that
my favorite storyteller in comics, Frank Miller, was also influenced
by her work, as was another favorite of mine, Steve Ditko, who has
spent most of his career expressing Objectivist ideas through his
work.

DS: Now that we know a bit more of the background behind
your work lets discuss some of the specific pieces in ProPiganda and
the ideas they depict. One of the most challenging, interesting
illustrations in the book is the “They Say We Say” image on page 43.
It's an illustration of a point you elaborate on in the book's
essays: the enemy is Islam, the so-called moderate Islam of the West
is not really true Islam at all. This strikes me as one of the most
important ideas in the book. It's also one of the most
controversial. Could you elaborate on this idea for those new to
your work?

BF: They say Islam, we say anything but Islam, leaving the
troubling impression that the enemy's religion is something other
than Islam. There is no "Political Islam" or "Totalitarian Islam"
that is distinguishable from Islam itself. Islam is normatively
political and totalitarian. We have evaded the true meaning of Islam
in the name of respect for religion. But we cannot avoid the
consequences of doing so. Mohammed was a Muslim and his religion was
Islam; he was not an Islamist practicing Islamism. He was a Muslim
who practiced Islam and engaged in its violent Jihad, forcing Islam
into a world it failed to get into on merit. And any Muslim who is
peace-loving and tolerant is by implication condemning their
violent, intolerant "prophet" and the means by which their religion
was spread. How Islam spread tells us exactly what Islam means. When
the moral standard for an entire culture is a bad guy who crossed
the line as a way of life, it explains why his most devout followers
are the most violent among Muslims. We can try our best to stay
clear of Islam, but Muslims have proven that they will never keep
Islam to themselves unless they are forced to. It is a faith that
sanctions any evil against those who are not part of it. Our not
calling this evil by its name, Islam, is sanctioning it and leaving
ourselves at the mercy of those who will stop at nothing to bury all
we hold dear.

DS: This understanding of Islam would represent a pretty
fundamental shift in the American approach to the War on Terror.
Currently US policy from the President down has held that Islam is
not the enemy, that Islamic terrorists represent a perversion of
Islam, and that the US is not engaged in a war with Islam. The ideas
of ProPiganda turn that approach on its head, flipping each
proposition 180 degrees: Islam is the enemy, Islamic terrorists are
merely acting as Mohammad did, and that we actually are fighting a
war against Islam. What implications would such a shift in ideas
yield toward how the United States deals with this threat? In one of
your essays you challenged President Bush for his "quarter-assed
response to 9/11." Would it simply be a matter of getting more
aggressive? Do we need to fight the War on Terror Pigman style?

BF: If 2,996 American politicians were murdered on 9/11,
do you think Washington would have been interested in exonerating
Islam and allowing this enemy to kill again? We all know the answer.
Our politicians are so disconnected from the American people, that
they now do everything but their job. If they can't defend us,
they're good for nothing. They think that their job in this war is
to win hearts and minds that already belong to Islam. And while they
dispassionately wage a war on "terror", not jihad, they allow the
two greatest state sponsors of jihad terrorism, Saudi Arabia and
Iran, to remain in business. For now, our government goes big on us
and small on jihad, while telling us that we are not fighting a war
against Islam, even though Islam is fighting a war against us.

Ayn Rand said, "To fear to face an issue is to believe that
the worst is true." And the worst is true about Islam, which is
why no one in our government challenged Bush's famous anti-reality
check, "Islam means peace." We have gone from the terribly
named "War on Terror" to the now even more euphemistic "Overseas
Contingency Operation," while the enemy has stuck with the same
jihad for over a thousand years.

Those who've sworn to defend us have decided that there are more
important things to them than defending us. As I wrote in my
introduction to ProPiganda, "Our leaders have decided that, while
the protection of America is optional, the defense of Islam is
absolute." Our government has waged war the way the enemy wages
peace and has never given the enemy a reason to end jihad. This
enemy has been out for blood for over a thousand years. Obama,
following in Bush's compassionate war mode, is hoping that the enemy
tires in the face of our unused power. But they will never tire of
spilling our blood; this is what they do, what they've always done,
and they have always counted on their savagery to help them overcome
all odds against those they conquered. So yes, we need to fight the
War on Jihad, Pigman style. Above all, we need to follow the truth
to wherever it may lead in order to show us what must be done. We
need to terrify the enemy by saying and doing the once unthinkable
against them and all they hold dear. You will see what I mean in
The Infidel.

DS: I'd like to continue this discussion and this point
through bringing up another image from ProPiganda and then posing a
two-part question. On page 81 you have an image of PigMan along with
the phrase "Can't Bring Gray to a Black and White Fight," clearly an
influence from your Objectivist philosophy. The impression I get
from Propiganda and your comments is a vision of the necessity to
wage a brutal, unrelenting war against the Muslim world. If you'd
like to clarify this, perhaps with specifics that would be great. Do
we need to invade and occupy Saudi Arabia and Iran? Nuke Mecca?
Assassinate Ahmadinejad? What are we talking here?

One of the ideas that I've written about a fair amount is that
people do and think intolerable things (jihad in this discussion)
for two primary reasons. The first is out of malevolence or evil.
The second is out of ignorance -- they just haven't been educated
yet. When we're dealing with evil we need to attack it PigMan style.
However, when we're dealing with ignorance we need to seduce and
persuade. My impression of the Muslim world is that there are many
-- particularly our counterparts in Generations X and Y -- who are
entirely reachable and persuadable. They don't need the brutality of
PigMan but the opportunity to learn what American values and
American freedom are really all about. And given the choice between
Islam and freedom they'll choose the latter. And I see a value in
trying to reach out to them. Do you agree? Disagree? Am I bringing
gray to a black and white fight?

BF: First thing, it is the Muslim world that is waging a
"brutal, unrelenting war against" us. They are forcing us to do
things we don't want to do and it's up to them how ugly it's going
to get. I will show how I think a superpower ought to respond to
those who attack it in The Infidel. Regarding Muslims who are mere
sheep to their jihadist wolves, those killed by us in the line of
fire are the full responsibility of jihadists who habitually hide
among civilians. About those Muslims who may be, as you put it,
"entirely reachable and persuadable," if they do exist at all in any
great number, their full liberation will only come in a post-jihad
world. But today, when Muslims are given the choice between Islam
and freedom, they choose Islam. They did so in elections in Iraq,
Afghanistan and "Palestine." A "Palestinian" terrorist even thanked
America for giving them the weapon of democracy after his terrorist
group was voted in by those who celebrated 9/11. In any given
culture, there is always a small minority of evil people. In the
Islamic world, however, that small minority established Islamic rule
and holds power to this day.

DS: The final image I'd like to discuss is perhaps my
personal favorite from ProPiganda. It's "Comeuppance" on page 56 and
features an image of Pigman beating a Muslim husband who protests "But
the Koran says I can beat her." His wife stands smiling in the
background. Then you quote a verse from the Koran which claims men
are superior to women and justifies domestic abuse. Like many
elements of superhero comics it's an escapist fantasy, expressing a
desire to liberate the millions of oppressed Muslim women from a
truly misogynistic society. Is this particular critique of the
Muslim world one we can look forward to seeing explored more in The
Infidel? And has your research into Islam given you any insights on
the religion’s misogynist tendencies?

BF: I deal with Islam's inherent hostility towards women
in the book in a number of ways, mainly through a female character
who has been a victim of it her entire life and who, like Killian,
saves herself from Islam after 9/11. Having saturated myself with
all things Islam these past few years, I've come to believe that
Mohammed understood the power women had over him and men in general
and that he wanted to do whatever he could to keep that truth from
women. He even told his wives that when he peered into hell, the
majority of its inhabitants were women. When asked by one of his
wives why that was, he answered, "Because they did not listen to
their husbands!"

Women are considered a necessary evil in Islam since they are the
only way to deliver male Muslims into the world. I was shocked as a
teenager to see that the reaction to the birth of a girl in my
family was the same as if someone had died. It was mainly Muslim
women who responded this way, no doubt because they understood too
well the mistreatment these girls likely would receive. For others,
it could have been that Islam got to them so deeply that they really
did believe women were just no damn good. Islam has pitted men
against women and the Islamic culture's humanity has been crippled
by it, to absolutely no one's benefit, no matter what male Muslims
believe. In general, I think Muslim women have more power over
Muslim males than does Islam itself; and this fact is to be covered
up at all times. Literally.

All men understand how much we need women, but Muslim men seem to
see this need as a threat, as if their need makes them dependent and
therefore weak in the face of women, most especially beautiful ones.
So when Mohammed got really desperate to spread Islam, he went for
the hard sell and told his dupes that if they threw their lives away
for his ideology, they'd be guaranteed 72 slavish virgins to do with
as they please. Misogynists killing and dying for women, only in
Islam.

DS: What were the books that influenced your understanding
of Islam, politics, and comics?

BF: I've read dozens of books on Islam and its jihad, and
also books on fanaticism and violence, but I'll just mention the
ones that most come to mind:

In comics, my favorite artist of all time is Alex Toth. My
favorite comic book writer is Frank Miller.

My favorite comic books/graphic novels are:

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David
Mazzuchelli

Batman: Year One by Miller & Mazzuchelli

DS: Bosch, I appreciate you taking the time to explain your
ideas further. When will we be able to buy The Infidel? And do you
have any plans for future projects?

BF: The Infidel #1 will be released in late July, with all
the chapters to be later collected in a one volume graphic novel.
Unless, of course, a publisher gives me an offer I can't refuse and
publishes it as the book I intend it to be. As for future projects,
Pigman has become such a big part of The Infidel that I can
definitely see a Pigman series at some point. I have a number of
story ideas, but one that has stuck with me for years is one I had
in mind as a follow up to my first graphic novel, Table for One, but
then 9/11 hit and things changed. It's a mind travel story that has
stayed with me for years and something so different from my work so
far that I can't wait to see it myself. Thanks for the opportunity
to reach an audience I've been a part of for a good number of years.

'---

This interview of ex-Muslim Bosch Fawstin appeared in Front Page Magazine on April 14, 2009